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The hope expressed by the African American reformers during 1919 was brought about mainly because of how several African Americans were mobilized during the war. Although war mobilization initiated a military draft, labor shortages, training, and presented various opportunities for employment for those in South Carolina, these changes posed threats for the existing racial hierarchy in the area. While the black reformers saw the war as a catalyst for change, the white reformers perceived this as a way to generate profit, new capital, and to identify the shortcomings of the state. Since the...

The hope expressed by the African American reformers during 1919 was brought about mainly because of how several African Americans were mobilized during the war. Although war mobilization initiated a military draft, labor shortages, training, and presented various opportunities for employment for those in South Carolina, these changes posed threats for the existing racial hierarchy in the area. While the black reformers saw the war as a catalyst for change, the white reformers perceived this as a way to generate profit, new capital, and to identify the shortcomings of the state. Since the whites resisted political instability, all of the changes experienced were made to comply with expressions of white social control. This chapter identifies how war mobilization could not be controlled since African Americans initiated the change, the war-related demands of the federal government were in conflict with the interests of the whites, and the marketplace's invisible hand generated economic stimuli that veered away from social control.